


Walk of Shame

by rosensilence



Series: Ficlets [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux Has No Chill, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, M/M, Meet-Cute, Modern AU, Walk Of Shame, don't assume things kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosensilence/pseuds/rosensilence
Summary: Armitage Hux comes home from work at 6am every Sunday morning.  That his hot neighbor also comes home every Sunday at the same time reeking of sweat and sex seems entirely unfair.





	Walk of Shame

Every Sunday morning at 6am, Hux arrived home.

It was the perfect time to come home. The streets were bathed in a peace so silent that it was easy for Hux to believe that he was the only human that still existed; a thought that held more appeal to Hux than it probably should.

His reason for coming home at such an antisocial hour was not an exciting one. Hux was an architect by trade and he had been tasked with the design of a new state of the art office building for one of the high street banks. It was a high profile, high stress and high stakes project and Hux had been working through the night on it for weeks.

He did his best work at night. There was something about being in the office on his own with only the graveyard shift on Classic FM for company that got his creative juices flowing. The office was too busy during the day. He’d tried—several times—to work a regular 9-to-5 schedule, but all that gave him was a stress induced headache and a blank page that stubbornly remained blank.

For most people of Hux’s age, working through the night on a Saturday would not have been acceptable. They had partners, families, social lives and all of those things that Hux had never managed to maintain. All Hux had was his cat, and a couple of peace lillies he could barely keep alive.

He was reminded of the emptiness of his life compared to others around him three months into his Sunday morning routine. 

Just as Hux was fumbling for the correct key to open his flat, he heard the heavy stomp of combat boots behind him. It was his neighbour—Ben Solo—coming home after doing whatever Ben Solo had done that Saturday night. It soon became routine. Hux and Ben would both arrive home around 6am each Sunday morning.

Hux had never spoken to Ben beyond the occasional muttered greeting, but he was sure that Ben’s Saturday night activities were more traditional than his own. Ben was tall and broad, with pretty hair, pretty eyes and an easy smile that was charming in its imperfectness. Hux had no doubt that Ben spent his Saturday nights in the arms of a lover, he just wasn’t sure if it was the same one each week or not.

As the weeks wore on and Hux arrived home each Sunday morning to find Ben coming home too, Hux started to feel resentful. Ben always looked completely shagged out; his hair was messy, his steps were heavy and Hux could almost smell the scent of sex clinging to his sweaty skin. It was another reminder of how everyone else was living their lives while Hux was struggling to make toilet blocks fit a company’s aesthetic.

It took nine weeks of it for Hux to finally snap.

Ben hadn’t done anything to deserve it, not really. All he’d done was drop his keys and accidentally bump into Hux in their cramped hallway, but it was enough to make Hux’s last thread of patience finally break.

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Sorry?” Ben asked, straightening back up to his full height after picking up his keys.

“Coming home every Sunday morning at the same time as me. Rubbing my nose in it.”

“Rubbing your nose in what? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You,” Hux said. Deep down he knew he was being unreasonable, but he had a lot of anger inside and Ben was a convenient target. “And your just shagged hair, doing the walk of shame every Sunday morning.”

“What is your problem, Hux? You’re here doing your own walk of shame every Sunday morning, too. Isn’t sex supposed to relax you? Why do you still look like you have a rod up your ass? Maybe you need a new girlfriend.”

“Excuse me?”

“Or boyfriend,” Ben added, shrugging his shoulders.

“For your information,” Hux said, taking a step forward and jabbing his finger into Ben’s personal space, “I’ve been working. Some of us have more important things to do than fuck our Saturday nights away.”

That wasn’t true, of course. Hux didn’t have to spend his Saturday nights designing open plan offices with tucked away meeting rooms, he just chose to because it was more productive than crying into a bottle of red.

“What’s your job?” 

“Why do you ask? It’s none of your concern.”

“I guess not,” Ben said, shrugging his shoulders again. “I work too, by the way.”

“What?”

“On Saturday nights. That’s where I am every week.”

_Oh_. Hux desperately wanted the ground to open up beneath him and swallow him whole, but he wasn’t that lucky. Ben worked? He’d known it was wrong to take his boiling anger and resentment out on Ben just because he’d thought the other man had an active sex life, but now he’d also managed to make a huge fool out of himself.

“Sorry,” murmured Hux. “I’ve had a rough week.”

“I understand. It sucks to be working your life away when everyone else seems to be enjoying theirs.”

“It’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. Look at us,” Ben said with a smile, “two losers doing a walk of shame from work. I’m a doorman, by the way. At the Nightingale.”

Oh yes, the gay club in town that half of Hux’s Grindr matches always wanted to hook up at. Hux had never been there, partly due to him being too nervous to ever meet up with anyone from Grindr, and partly due to his complete lack of a social life. 

‘I’m an architect,” Hux explained. “I’m working on a big project and Saturday night is a surprisingly inspirational time for me.” 

“I get that. Say, Hux,” Ben began, nervously rocking on his heels, “do you fancy getting breakfast at that cafe across the street? They do a killer full English.”

“I don’t think my stomach could cope with so much grease this early— Or late. Or whatever this time is,” Hux replied. 

He’d been speaking honestly, but wasn’t prepared for the way Ben’s face fell from hopeful to disappointed. Hux realised—rather belatedly—that just maybe, Ben had been asking him out. Sleep was calling to Hux, but so was something else.

A chance.

“I could manage a cup of tea and some toast, though,” Hux added.

Ben’s smile was brighter than the sun that was beginning to rise. “Awesome!”

They walked down the stairs and over to the cafe together, swapping anecdotes about late night working. Ben’s were definitely more colourful than Hux’s, but he didn’t seem bored by Hux’s tales of demanding clients and building legislation. As Hux sat there, slowly sipping his tea as Ben wolfed down a plateful of sausages and bacon, he had one question burning in his mind.

Would it still be considered a walk of shame if all he did was cross the hallway from Ben’s flat to his own?

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://rosensilence.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rosensilence)!


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